The feasibility of a health risk assessment framework to derive guidelines for oestrogen activity in treated drinking water

Expanded Title:

A previous WRC report KV 206/08 proposed a framework to deal with endocrine disrupting chemicals for drinking water in South Africa. The framework suggests a tiered approach to screening and testing of chemicals in the water environment rather than testing for specific target chemicals and recommended the use of a trigger value for oestrogen activity.
The aim of the project was to determine the feasibility of such a framework to derive guidelines for treated drinking water. It was necessary to test whether the tools and organisational structures were available if testing revealed results exceeding the trigger value which implies further tiered testing of water samples.
It is evident from the study that the proposed South African framework to assess endocrine disrupting activity in water and compare it with a trigger value is feasible. But, if the trigger value is exceeded, the possible cause or source would need to be identified and at this time the necessary capacity might not be available, even to do the first tiered bio-assays. A multidisciplinary team would need to be assembled to look at the possible sources such as industry, agriculture, waste streams etc. and follow-up samples would need to be taken to identify the specific chemicals responsible, before remedial action could be taken.

Date Published:

04/02/2010

Document Type:

Research Report

Document Subjects:

Drinking water - Water supply

Document Keywords:

Water Quality

Document Format:

Report

Document File Type:

pdf

Research Report Type:

Standard

WRC Report No:

1749/1/09

ISBN No:

978-1-77005-921-4

Authors:

Genthe B; Steyn M; Aneck-Hahn NH; Van Zijl C; de Jager C

Project No:

K5/1749

Originator:

WRC

Organizations:

CSIR Natural Resources and the Environment Stellenbosch; University of Pretoria